Werner Klemperer was a heck of a guy.

LEFT: Werner Klemperer as the pompous Colonel Klink.

I'll get to the news story in a minute, kiddies. In the meantime, I want you to chew on this: Why were even the middling stars of yesteryear infinitely more interesting and well-rounded people than any of our so-called celebrities of today?


From IMDB:

His identification with Nazi roles notwithstanding, Klemperer was in real life a Jew who fled with his family from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. When he was offered the Col. Klink role, Klemperer only agreed to do it if the show's producers promised that Klink would never succeed in any of his schemes. "Col. Klink" earned Klemperer four Emmy nominations, and he took home the trophy twice, in 1968 and 1969. Since the end of the series, Klemperer has carved out an impressive musical career as a conductor and also served as a narrator with many major U.S. symphony orchestras. He was an accomplished concert violinist.

Werner Klemperer died of cancer on December 6, 2000 at age 80.


Dis-Missed!

"Congressional candidate Coleen Rowley publicly apologized Monday after a volunteer placed a doctored picture of U.S. Rep. John Kline as the Nazi soldier Col. Klink of the television show 'Hogan's Heroes' on her campaign Web site's blog," reports the St. Paul Pioneer Press:


In a letter to Rowley, Kline wrote: "Your attempts to smear my good name and 25 years of honorable service in the United States Marine Corps by equating me to a Nazi shows a lack of perspective, a lack of seriousness, and a lack of good judgment. You should be ashamed of yourself."


In responding to the criticism, Rowley campaign manager Joe Elcock said:


"We had a volunteer Web site person who didn't understand the implications of using the Colonel Klink image. It is something that is unfortunate.''


Interestingly, the Pioneer Press doesn't tell us either candidate's political party--which, given the usual bias in the press, leads us to suspect that Rowley is a Democrat and Kline a Republican. (Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)